Client Case Study: Tuncurry Forster Football Club

The Brief:

This client was using the free sporting website software - but like most things in business and marketing, you get what you pay for!

The old platform lacked many editing features, with a back-end that was not easy & intuitive to use by the Club’s committee members (who are all volunteers with varying degrees of tech confidence.)

The sport - not just the client’s Club - was also noticing a decrease in registering players, and wanted to get on the front foot spreading the word about the many benefits of community sport.

This was a project of 2 parts:

1. Build a website that was logical and engaging, making it easy for browsers to go form ‘just looking’ to ‘now playing’.

2. Look for opportunities to promote the club & allow new potential players to get a ‘sample experience’ that would encourage them to register in the coming year.

Part 1: The Website

The website needed to become a hub of key information that was reliable & up-to-date. Prior to the website build, the Club had been relying on their Facebook page for broadcasting updates (not realising that Facebook’s organic reach - how many of your followers actually see posts on your page - is only about 5.5%).

The client and I discussed at length the kind of information current & potential players would need, as well as the infrastructure needed to take those interested closer towards registration.

Registration itself could be a tricky process to navigate in itself for new comers - this was also identified as a ‘barrier to entry’ as well as understanding how to take advantage of the NSW Government’s Active Kids Vouchers.

Registration has cut-off periods, so we also needed to ensure there was a facility to capture the contact details of interested parties after this point, so they could be followed up on in the coming season. All this was with the view of setting good marketing ‘habits’ for the Club to decrease the chances of missing interested players and encouraging more to take part.

Website features

• Built in Squarespace, allowing for easy use by the Committee Volunteers who have a range of tech experience

• Use of forms (i.e. Expressions of Interest forms) for those wishing to play but have missed registration cut-offs. These automatically link to Google Sheets, so this data is stored securely for easy use in follow up emails.

• Registration page clearly outlining the Active Kids & Registration process, before linking through to the association website to proceed

• Embedded Google Drive folder with forms and links that can be added to by committee members and accessed by anyone in the Club

• Dedicated Canteen page to promote it’s benefits as a key part of the Club

• Wet weather click through in the Announcement Bar at the top of the screen, linking through to the local council website for regular updates about wet weather and field closures.

• News & Calendar facilities for date-related information

Website Preview

Part 2: Promoting the Club

Now that the Club had an easy-to-navigate website to drive potential players to, the next question was: how do we attract & engage potential players for the coming season?

We decided to focus on the introductory player age groups, on the theory that they’re signed up by their parents and - if they maintain interest in the sport and have a great experience - usually remain at the Club for 10+ years. There’s also the added benefit of attracting mums and dads who may wish to return to the sport once their children are playing.

The best course of action was to implement the MiniRoos Kick-Off framework available to NSW Clubs. This was an 8 week program of weekly 45 min sessions designed to develop skills & build confidence in potential or existing players aged 4-9. The Club had run the program in the past but hadn’t been able to promote the program on a board enough scale to attract as many participants as possible.

the strategy

For the 2020 Summer Kick-Off Program, we took a multi-layered approach by considering where the highest number of decision makers - primarily mums - would be most likely to see & respond to the advertising:

• A dedicated page on the Club website with a schedule, benefits and links to register

• 2 x Facebook posts, boosted to a target Facebook Audience tailored to the types of people we needed to target

• Posters & flyers delivered to local preschools, primary schools and after school care facilities.

• Our Facebook post graphic shared with these organisations for promotion through their own digital channels (email, Facebook Page, etc.)

Throughout the program, parents received direct email marketing as reminders & encouragement for attendance. In delivering the program, we would tweak the groups the children were divided into to create the optimum dynamic amongst the players, which allowed the volunteer coaches to offer the best experience, creating excitement for the coming season.

At the end of the program, we hosted a BBQ to celebrate the kids’ dedication, where they were given a free sausage sizzle, participation certificates and ribbons. Attached to the certificates was a DL flyer outlining the next steps for registering for the next season.

A celebration at the end of the 8 weeks ensured the kids & families left on a high note, buzzing with excitement. It was critical that we created the atmosphere of anticipation in the hopes it would carry them through the downtime until registrations commenced.

the result

The program attracted approximately 70 children aged 4 - 9, setting state records for registrations (particularly exciting for a regional area!). We are yet to see how this converts into registrations for the 2021 season, but with a number of parents asking for more information throughout the 8 weeks, we have extremely high hopes for the Club’s player numbers in the coming year. The program also allowed us to generate much-needed revenue to the Club, which will go towards improvements and promotions.